an old lady - is it? Ah! but it was white almost as snow. And
although her face was so smooth, her eyes looked so wise that you
could not have helped seeing she must be old. The princess, though
she could not have told you why, did think her very old indeed -
quite fifty, she said to herself. But she was rather older than
that, as you shall hear.

While the princess stared bewildered, with her head just inside the
door, the old lady lifted hers, and said, in a sweet, but old and
rather shaky voice, which mingled very pleasantly with the
continued hum of her wheel:

'Come in, my dear; come in. I am glad to see you.'

That the princess was a real princess you might see now quite
plainly; for she didn't hang on to the handle of the door, and
stare without moving, as I have known some do who ought to have
been princesses but were only rather vulgar little girls. She did
as she was told, stepped inside the door at once, and shut it
gently behind her.

'Come to me, my dear,' said the old lady.

And again the princess did as she was told. She approached the old
lady - rather slowly, I confess - but did not stop until she stood
by her side, and looked up in her face with her blue eyes and the
two melted stars in them.

'Why, what have you been doing with your eyes, child?' asked the
old lady.